[Pentecost+26] Rooftop People (nothing but net)

One day, while Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting near by (they had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem); and the power of God was with Jesus to heal.

Just then some people came, carrying a paralyzed person on a pallet. They were trying to bring this person in to set before Jesus; but finding no way to do so because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let the person down through the tiles into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus.

Seeing their faith, Jesus said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven you."

Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, "Who is this who is speaking blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

Perceiving their questionings, Jesus answered them, "Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Stand up and walk'? But so that you may know that the Child of Humanity has authority on earth to forgive sins" -- Jesus said to the one who was paralyzed -- "I say to you, stand up and take your bed mat and go to your home."

Immediately the individual stood up before them, took up their mat, and went home, glorifying God. Amazement seized all of them, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, "We have seen strange things today."

Luke 5:17-26 (NRSV, alt.)

For some time, First Church Somerville had a group named from this story -- "Rooftop People," a place where people who work in caregiving professions (broadly defined -- social workers, teachers, massage therapists, etc.) or just do caregiving work in their lives could lay down their burdens in community.

Certainly this story is a familiar one to many -- and the obvious ways to find oneself in this story are as the friends or as the paralyzed person.

Martha Spong writes, "Sometimes I wish someone would do this for me, put me right in the middle of it with Jesus, put me right in front of his face and make it so he will look me in the eye and see me and fix what is wrong with me."

There is a boldness to this story -- the friends taking apart the roof of the house to get their friend to Jesus. (Do any of us identify with the owner of the house -- who may have developed very mixed feelings about letting Jesus in? Is there a message here about how openness and vulnerability can bring us more than we may have expected? I have a pin that says, "If I let Jesus into my heart, then everyone will want in.")

But there's a lot here that's left to the imagination. Were the friends acting largely out of desperation? Whose idea was this whole thing to begin with -- the friends or the individual on the mat?

In her sermon on Sunday, Molly preached on the idea of nets (riffing on Glennon Melton's Momastery blogpost) -- about the grasping and also about the release.

The friends had worked hard -- carrying their friend over who knows how long a distance, then up to the roof of a building, which they then took apart, and then down into the crowded room (did they have rope just lying about? were they worried about the bed hitting anyone on the way down?). We don't know how long this person had been paralyzed, so these friends may have been providing a net for a long time. But we can't do everything, and sometimes we need to let go. And it was after the friends had let go that the individual was healed.

Does this story provide any guidance for helping us balance the grasping and releasing elements of nets?

And what about Jesus' enigmatic opening: "Friend, your sins are forgiven you"? Elsewhere, Jesus is quite clear that God doesn't punish people for sin by sending infirmity upon them. Is there something here about the kinds of things we need to release before we can claim true healing? Jesus has also asked elsewhere, "Do you want to be healed?"

When I Googled "Do you want to be healed?" I was quickly informed that Jesus says this in a story from John 5. A lot of the results were commentaries or sermons on the story, and from one of them Google had pulled this excerpt: And honestly this has to be the most insensitive healing text in the Bible, because Jesus asks him the really harsh question: "do you want to be ... Intrigued, I clicked, and found it was a Nadia Bolz-Weber (Sarcastic Lutheran) sermon.

She writes:

This weekend at the retreat we kept a running list of overheard quotes from each other. [...]

But the one that struck me was when someone said "There's something satisfying about hating someone." To which someone replied "Yeah, there's definitely a pay off."

I can relate to that. When we seriously don't like someone we like to think that we hate them because they are awful horrible no good people – and that might be true. But if I'm totally honest, I have to admit that there also is a payoff to hating someone. Maybe I get to feel like a better person than them, or maybe then I don't then have to look at what I did wrong in our relationship, or maybe I then don't have to look at my own awful, horrible, no-goodness.

[...]

And if we are honest, there are payoffs, not just to hating people, but to so many things in life that hurt us.

I used to read Nadia's blog somewhat regularly (before she moved to Patheos, which doesn't play well with feed readers), and Nadia's church could probably never be my home church, but she speaks to my soul sometimes.

Beloved, what is it that speaks to you in this story?

Are there ways you are being called to offer a net to someone in need (or to ask for one for yourself)?

Are there things you are being called to release? Perhaps things you need to lay down in front of Jesus and let go of for your own healing and wholeness?

Or perhaps there are other things these texts brought up for you.

You're invited to continue the conversation in the comments. (As always, you're welcome to comment anonymously/pseudonymously if you prefer.)